Pacific Edge Magazine

With growing interest from government agencies and local landowners, the rare 'Iliahi tree (Hawaiian sandalwood) is poised for a comeback in the islands.

Long prized for its sweet fragrance and medicinal uses, 'Iliahi (Hawaiian sandalwood), a one-time economic staple of Hawai'i, has steadily declined since its first major export to China in the early1800s.Today, a handful of public and private landowners are working to restore the species.

The nonprofit Hawaiian Legacy Reforestation Initiative (HLRI), best known for its reforestation of more than 1,000 acres of Hawai'i's endemic koa forests on Hawai'i Island, has now expanded its scope to include the preservation and restoration of sandalwood.

Within HLRI's Legacy Forest, nearly 17,000 sandalwood trees have already been planted as part of a larger forest ecosystem, comprised of more than 350,000 other endemic trees and shrubs.

The future of this tree however, may lie in a petri dish.Through science, technology, and innovation, HLRI is helping to bring these trees out of the pages of history books and back into the forest.

"Sandalwood nuts are a high-protein food source for invasive rodents. As more sandalwood nuts are produced, the rodent population grows. This, along with the absence of important seed-carrying birds such as the Hawaiian crow, has made wild regeneration of these trees almost impossible," says Darrell Fox, COO of HLH. "So we are harvesting seeds by hand and raising seedlings in protected nurseries."

But there is another problem, Fox says. The natural germination of sandalwood can take from six months to three years, making it an expensive process.

"At HLRI, we are confident we can overcome this hurdle through science," he says. "We are rescuing embryos from less-viable seeds by germinating them in petri dishes. We can achieve germination in as little as three to five days and with a greater success rate. Efforts are underway to capitalize on these methods to create field-ready plants."

"This type of reforestation may be the only way to bring sandalwood back," says Irene Sprecher, forestry program manager at the State of Hawai'i Department of Land and Natural Resources. "We are looking at a tree that is equally as important as koa, and it is critical to have these native forests as well as future economic opportunities from these forests."

It is unclear how much of the endemic sandalwood forests remain. Major botanical surveys of Hawaiian forests were widely conducted only after extensive harvesting of sandalwood had changed the species mix of endemic ecosystems.

Harvesting sandalwood is still allowed in Hawai'i. A state-level permit process helps protect a portion of the forests. Sandalwood is also being considered for inclusion on the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) endangered species list.

"Historically we often think of the native Hawaiian forest as being predominantly koa, but there were also vast tracts of sandalwood," Fox says. "Evidence for this comes from examining ships' logs during the peak of the sandalwood trade. The Chinese even referred to Hawai'i as Tan Heung Shan (Sandalwood Mountains). Commerce has played a significant role in the depletion of Hawai'i's sandalwood forests; perhaps science can play an equally important role in returning these trees to the forest."

Learn more about the Legacy Forest at www.LegacyTrees.org. To plant a tree, which can be tracked online for years to come, visit www.HawaiianLegacyTours.com.